Digital Commons Network^™

Is Your Cyst Really A Ganglion Cyst? A Case Report Of Angioleiomyoma Mimicking A Plantar Fascia Cystic Lesion, Christopher Anjorin Ms Dpmc, Joseph Bender Dpm

School of Podiatric Medicine - Student Research

Ganglion cysts are among the most common benign soft tissue masses encountered in podiatric clinical practice, and their diagnosis is often presumed based on location, clinical observation, and transillumination. However, this case highlights a diagnostic idiosyncrasy: a lesion clinically presumed to be a ganglion cyst within the plantar fascia was ultimately identified as an angioleiomyoma following surgical excision and histopathological evaluation. This finding underscores the importance of maintaining a broad differential diagnosis when assessing cystic lesions, particularly those that transilluminate, as benign vascular tumors may closely mimic more common entities in both clinical presentation and imaging. More importantly, what if …

Long-Term Analysis Of Pm2.5 Elemental Composition And Source Contributions In Coastal Urban Environments Of Corpus Christi And Houston In Texas, Sai Deepak Pinakana, Jeremy A. Sarnat, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Long-term assessments of fine particulate matter play a key role in identifying persistent and emerging emission contributors. Coastal urban areas are highly susceptible to transboundary dust and wildfire events in addition to local pollution sources. Multi-decadal assessments in these regions using chemical speciation data could offer insights into major pollutant sources and their trends. This study utilizes nearly two decades of PM2.5 elemental composition data at two major coastal cities in Texas: Houston and Corpus Christi. Fourteen trace elements were analyzed to characterize the seasonal variability and long-term source evolution using a combination of Spearman’s correlation analysis, principal component analysis, …

Evaluating The Transformation Of Land Cover, Land Surface Temperature, And Urban Heat Island In Sylhet Division Through Geospatial Analysis, Md Fazle Rabbi Joy, Md Abdur Rahim, Md Mahfuzar Rahman, Sumiaya Amin Preota, Mohammed Mahathee Hossain

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Rapid and unplanned urbanization has significantly transformed land use/land cover (LULC), contributing to increased land surface temperature (LST) and the emergence of urban heat islands (UHIs), especially in ecologically fragile regions. This study focuses on the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, assessing LULC changes, LST dynamics, and UHI expansion from 1994 to 2024 using Landsat satellite imagery, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference water index (NDWI) indices, and field-based LST validation. Unsupervised classification reveals a 191.75% increase in settlement areas and a 25.65% loss in forest cover. Correspondingly, the highest LST zones (> 30 °C) were absent in 1994 but …

A Critical Review Of Pharmaceutical Pollutants In Soil And Air: Ecotoxicological Impacts On Animal, Plant And Microbial Communities - Health Hazards And Waste Management, Md Faisal Amin, Md. Saydur Rahman

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Pharmaceutical contamination in soil and air has become a critical environmental concern due to its widespread sources, complex behavior, and long-lasting ecological impacts. This review comprehensively explores the presence, fate, and effects of pharmaceutical compounds in soil, highlighting their entry routes, environmental persistence, and biological consequences. Pharmaceuticals infiltrate terrestrial and aquatic environments through various pathways, including agricultural application, pharmaceutical manufacturing waste, sewage sludge, hospital and household discharges, irrigation with contaminated water, and atmospheric deposition. A wide range of drug classes, such as antibiotics, analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antidepressants, anticancer drugs, and hormones, have been identified in both soil and air …

Ybx1 Orchestrates Srebp2-Driven Cholesterol Metabolism To Confer Drug Resistance In Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Veerababu Nagati, Miguel Salazar, Swathi Tenugu, Yamile Abuchard, Ana Ayala Pazzi, Ricardo Pequeno Bracho, Dennis Kwabai, Manish K. Tripathi

Research Symposium

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, with limited therapeutic options and poor prognosis. Sorafenib, a multikinase inhibitor, is the first-line treatment for advanced HCC; however, the rapid emergence of drug resistance significantly limits its clinical efficacy. Our preliminary data indicate that Y-box binding protein 1 (YBX1) contributes to sorafenib resistance by reprogramming cholesterol metabolism. Specifically, YBX1 upregulates sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 (SREBP2), enhancing cholesterol biosynthesis and accumulation while downregulating the cholesterol efflux transporter ABCA1. This metabolic alteration stabilizes receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), promoting Akt/mTOR signaling and sustaining drug resistance, thereby unraveling the …

Bilingualism In The Rio Grande Valley: Documentary Interview With Dr. Nelson Mata, Aidan Mata

Bilingualism in Higher Ed Summit

Dr. Nelson Mata is a physician who has conducted his practice of internal medicine for 32 years in the Rio Grande Valley. Originally living in Dominican Republic where he studied medicine, he went to fulfill his residency program in New York. This multicultural background has enabled him to speak both English and Spanish. As such, he began his practice here in the Rio Grande Valley where doctors who could speak Spanish were needed. He saw it as an opportunity to lend aid to the local Hispanic community with his bilingual communication skills. Through connecting with each patient by understanding, forming …

The Rider (2026-11-02), Daniela Chapa-Reyes

The Rider Archives

Vol. 12, No. 11

Release Of Bound Steroid From The Androgen And Estrogen Receptors Is Induced By Ddt And Its Analogs, Matthew D. Rosales, Tahyra Soto, Jacqueline I. Goodship, Ahyssa R. Cruz, Isaac A. Rodriguez, Ventura Cuba Flores, Amanda Chavez, Monica P. Solis, Esmeralda Lopez, Frank B. Dean, Evangelia Kotsikorou

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

The pesticide p,p'-DDT (DDT) and its analogs (p,p'-DDD, o,p'-DDD, and p,p'-DDE) inhibit the binding of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) to the androgen receptor (AR) and estradiol (E2) to the estrogen receptor (ERα) ligand-binding domains (LBDs), as previously reported. In this study, we introduce assays to measure the release of receptor-bound steroids. These compounds induced the release of DHT from the AR LBD and E2 from the ERα LBD. These findings suggest that DDT and its analogs may interact with a surface site on the LBD, thereby allosterically disrupting steroid binding. One potential site is binding function 3 (BF3). To explore this possibility, …

Managing Collaboration Under Conservation Crisis: Trust, Risk, And Control In The Gulf Of Maine Fishery Management Network, Evelyn Roozee, Owen Temby, Dongkyu Kim, Antonia Sohns, Anthony Rocha Lima, Jasper R. De Vries, Gordon M. Hickey

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Transboundary fishery management and the intertwined conservation of critically endangered species represent significant governance challenges that require ongoing inter-organizational communication, collaboration, and collective action to achieve shared objectives. Previous research suggests that inter-organizational collaborative performance depends heavily on different dimensions of trust and complementary control mechanisms to mitigate the perceived risks of collaborating and enable the reciprocal sharing of resources and the coordination of activities. However, it is unclear how proposed relationships between trust, risk, and control are shaped by disruptions to established transboundary management networks. This study presents the results of survey research conducted in the Gulf of Maine …

Identifying A Shared Metabolomic Signature In Mother–Newborn Dyads With And Without Gestational Diabetes: Implications For Early Metabolic Programming, Isabel Omaña-Guzmán, Juan Lopez-Alvarenga, Berenice Palacios-González, Fernanda Jaramillo-Pimentel, Luis Lanz-Pérez, Amhed Alvarado-González, Cristina Díaz-Olivares, José Alberto Carranco-Martínez, Marcela Vela-Amieva, Isabel Ibarra-González, Nayely Garibay-Nieto

School of Medicine Publications

Pregnancy is a critical window for metabolic programming, during which adverse intrauterine exposures may influence long-term health. GDM alters the intrauterine environment, but its role in early metabolic programming remains poorly understood. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify the shared metabolomic signature in mother–newborn dyads and to assess whether GDM modifies this signature. For this purpose, we conducted a cross-sectional study including mother–newborn dyads recruited at the General Hospital of Mexico. Blood samples were collected from dyads. Amino acids and acylcarnitines were quantified by tandem mass spectrometry. Sparse partial least squares (sPLS) analysis was used to identify …

When Bilingualism Belongs: Language Recognition, Academic Context, And Sense Of Belonging Among Bilingual Stem Undergraduates, Cristina Lozano Argüelles

Bilingualism in Higher Ed Summit

No abstract provided.

Creating Cobiva: Un Corpus Hecho Por Y Para La Comunidad Del Rgv, Delaney Dwyer, Emily Guerrero, Javier Arias

Bilingualism in Higher Ed Summit

No abstract provided.

Magnesium Intake, Sociodemographic Determinants, And Memory Performance In Older Adults: A Sex-Stratified Analysis In Nhanes 2011–2014, Huma Shahzad, Mohammed Razzaque, Juan Lopez-Alvarenga

School of Medicine Publications

Simple Summary: Magnesium is an essential nutrient found in foods such as leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, and is also commonly taken in dietary supplements. We studied whether total magnesium intake from food and supplements was related to memory in 2397 U.S. adults aged 60 years and older who participated in a national health and nutrition survey. Magnesium intake showed a small positive relationship with memory before considering total energy intake, particularly among women, but the relationship was not statistically significant. People who consumed more magnesium also tended to consume more calories overall. After taking energy intake …

The Rider (2026-10-19), Daniela Chapa-Reyes

The Rider Archives

Vol. 12, No. 9

Advancing Tuberculosis Vaccination: Immunological Insights And Emerging Strategies For Improved Protection, Zhicheng Zhang, Crystal Sanchez, Derek Baker, Jeries Bawardi, Victoria Renteria, Sheralyn Sanchez, Subramanian Dhandayuthapani, Jessica Chacon

School of Medicine Publications

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the leading causes of infectious disease mortality worldwide despite widespread Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination and decades of control efforts. The limited and variable efficacy of current vaccination strategies, particularly against adult pulmonary disease, highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the host immune mechanisms that determine protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. While traditional approaches to TB vaccine development have largely focused on pathogen-specific immunity and clinical efficacy, emerging evidence suggests that successful TB control may depend equally on the strategic modulation of host immune responses. This narrative review examines the immunological basis of TB vaccination, …

The Rider (2026-10-12), Daniela Chapa-Reyes

The Rider Archives

Vol. 12, No. 8

Geometric Puzzles On A Circular Track: A Recreational Introduction To Quantization, Sayandip Pandit, Amit Priyadarshi, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Imagine a circular running track with several water stations placed around it. If only a few stations may remain open, or if a few new stations may be built, where should they be located so that runners travel the shortest possible distance to reach one? This simple question leads to a collection of recreational geometry puzzles involving distance, symmetry, optimization, Voronoi regions, and quantization. Quantization is the mathematical problem of replacing a large collection of points by a smaller set of representative points while minimizing the approximation error. Using only elementary mathematics, we investigate several configurations of points on a …

Metabolic Disease Trends With Adhesive Capsulitis In South Texas High-Risk Majority Hispanic Populations, Mohammad Khalil, Yolanda Gutierrez, Blake Martin, Nicholas Bonazza, Robert Schenck, Aamir Ahmad

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Adhesive capsulitis, or frozen shoulder, is a condition characterized by pain and restricted motion in the shoulder joint. Diabetes is one of the core risk factors for the condition, and obesity has been demonstrated to decrease the age of onset in patients with adhesive capsulitis. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of diabetes and obesity in patients diagnosed with adhesive capsulitis in the Rio Grande Valley, a region with a high prevalence of metabolic disorders.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 836 cases of diagnosed adhesive capsulitis. Clinical data regarding shoulder involvement, diabetes status, and …

Carpet Viper (Echis Romani) Envenoming In Nigeria: Ecology, Venom Pathophysiology, Clinical Burden And Health-System Determinants, Godpower Chinedu Michael, Auwal A. Bala

Human Genetics Publications

Purpose of review: The carpet viper (Echis romani, recently separated from E. ocellatus) accounts for at least 66% of confirmed snakebite envenomings in the Nigerian savanna. Despite this, continental hazard modeling ranks it second in Nigeria. It is smaller and not necessarily more venomous per bite than the puff adder (Bitis arietans) or the black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis). This review synthesizes evidence on the ecology, venom effects, clinical impact, and health-system factors of carpet viper envenoming in Nigeria, including its effects on livestock and One Health considerations.

Recent findings: The risk of snakebite is influenced by multiple factors beyond …

The Rider (2026-10-05), Daniela Chapa-Reyes

The Rider Archives

Vol. 12, No. 7

First Evaluation Of Contrast-Enhanced Micro-Xct As A Tool For Organismal And Reproductive Trait Observations In Corals Based On Scans Of Thesea Nivea Deichmann, 1936, Erin E. Easton

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Micro-X-ray computed tomography (micro-XCT) with contrast enhancement is considered a non-destructive tool that is increasingly being applied to explore the internal and external structures of vertebrates and invertebrates. Although micro-XCT has been applied to corals to study skeletal features, contrast enhancement has not been applied to evaluate the utility for visualization of soft tissue structures in corals. This study is the first to evaluate the utility of contrast enhancement to visualize internal and external features, including soft tissue features, of octocorals. Contrast staining of a Thesea nivea specimen with 2.5% Lugol's iodine permitted visualization of soft tissues with sufficient density …

Blue Carbon Ecosystems As Climate Solutions: Sequestration Across Coastal And Marine Environments, Allison K. White, Richard J. Kline, Md. Saydur Rahman

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) such as mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses, sequester significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. These ecosystems capture and store carbon in biomass and sediments over long periods. Other marine ecosystems, including the open ocean, kelp forests, bivalve reefs, and coral reefs, have been excluded from the BCEs, but they have the potential to serve as crucial blue carbon sinks or to support adjacent BCEs. Climate change, however, poses severe threats to these ecosystems. Rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and ocean acidification can lead to habitat loss, reduced biodiversity, and impaired carbon sequestration capacity. Consequently, anthropogenic …

Study Of A Nonlinear Delayed Parabolic Model For Prion Disease Dynamics With The Unfolded Protein Response, Gangadhara Boregowda, Laurent Pujo-Menjouet, Zhaosheng Feng, Michael R. Lindstrom

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Prion diseases are neurodegenerative disorders characterized by the dynamic spread of misfolded toxic proteins in the brain. In this process, the normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) produced by neurons misfolds into a toxic form known as scrapie prion protein (PrPSc). These misfolded proteins propagate through the brain by converting healthy prions into their toxic form. This biological mechanism can be modeled by a system of nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations, accompanied by a nonlinear delayed integral boundary condition. Our primary objective is to establish the existence of nonnegative classical solutions to this system. Furthermore, we derive a priori estimates for …

Mi Lengua Es Mi Hogar: A Chicana’S Reflections On Language, Identity, History, And The Self, Sara E. Azúa

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Silverleaf Nightshade (Solanum Elaeagnifolium) Undergoes Guild-Specific Transcriptomic Reprogramming Against Chewing Versus Piercing Sucking Herbivory, Arunsaikumar Karrem, Matthew Terry, Jagdish Jaba, Rupesh R. Kariyat

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Solanum elaeagnifolium (silverleaf nightshade, SLN) is a globally invasive perennial weed with reproductive plasticity and complex defence systems that significantly impact crop yields by invading fields of staple, commercial and ornamental crops. Despite being a host to multiple insect herbivores, the molecular programming enabling its rapid adaptation to defend against diverse feeding guilds remains poorly resolved. Here, we report a comprehensive de novo transcriptomic assembly and comparative analysis of S. elaeagnifolium challenged by two distinct herbivores: the piercing-sucking generalist cowpea aphid, Aphis craccivora and the chewing specialist tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta. Differential gene expression analysis revealed a massive difference …

From Homes To Classrooms: Cultural Wisdom As A Guide For Stem Lesson Planning, Miriam Ortiz, Uma Ganesan, Angela Chapman, William Medina-Jerez, Ruby Lynch Arroyo, Mourat Tchoshanov

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This article describes innovative elementary science instructional approaches based on cultural wisdom developed by preservice teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation program at a university in the U.S.-Mexico border region. As a part of a larger study, three Latina preservice elementary teachers were a part of a teacher residency in conducting community interviews and reflection activities to uncover cultural backgrounds that could inform culturally relevant STEM lesson planning, centering on family and home knowledge. This project began with family interviews during winter break and culminated in lesson planning and implementation during their science methods course in the spring semester. The …

Recanalisation Quality, Not First-Pass Effect, Drives Outcomes In Paediatric Mechanical Thrombectomy: A Multicentre Prospective Study, Adam A. Dmytriw, Iman Kiani, Kartik Bhatia, Todd Abruzzo, Lisa Pabst, Stuart Fraser, Melissa Chung, Warren Lo, Ahmed Othmann, Ameer E. Hassan

School of Medicine Publications

Introduction: In adult endovascular thrombectomy (EVT), first-pass success is associated with better outcomes, but whether this "first-pass effect" also holds true in childhood stroke remains unknown. We investigated the association of thrombectomy pass counts with 90-day outcomes after paediatric EVT.

Patients and methods: We analysed prospectively collected data from the international Save ChildS Pro registry (ages 0-17 years). All EVT-treated patients were included irrespective of the reperfusion grade achieved. Successful reperfusion was defined as expanded thrombolysis in cerebral infarction (eTICI) ≥ 2b and complete/near-complete reperfusion as eTICI 2c-3. The primary outcome was ordinal 90-day mRS in a proportional odds model. …

The Rider (2026-09-28), Daniela Chapa-Reyes

The Rider Archives

Vol. 12, No. 6

Distinct Inhibitory Effects Of Statin Lactones On Ca2+- And Na+/K+-Atpases, Carlos Cruz-Cortés, Jaroslava Šeflová, L. Michel Espinoza-Fonseca

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

P-type ATPases share a conserved catalytic architecture but have different sensitivities to small-molecule inhibitors. We previously identified several statins as inhibitors of the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA), but the extent to which this inhibitory activity reflects broader pharmacological cross-reactivity among P-type ATPases remains unknown. Here, we compared the effects of seven structurally diverse statin lactones, which share a common δ-lactone moiety but contain distinct core scaffolds, including hexahydronaphthalene-based and aromatic heterocyclic ring systems, on SERCA and the Na+/K+-ATPase (NKA). The structurally related lovastatin and simvastatin produced similar concentration-dependent inhibitory profiles toward SERCA and NKA, despite the otherwise distinct pharmacological sensitivities …

Animal–Visitor Interactions: Where Do We Go From Here?, Eduardo J. Fernandez, Claudia C. Martinez, James Edward Brereton, Andrew Moss

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Simple Summary: Animal–visitor interactions (AVIs) involve the impacts of zoo animals and visitors on each other. AVIs have become one of the most studied research topics in zoos, in part because of the ease with which non-intrusive observational studies of AVIs can be conducted at a zoo. However, although current observation-based AVI research is relatively easy to conduct, it lends itself to certain limitations, particularly as a result of the lack of diversity in the species studied and the means by which AVI research is often conducted. As a result, this paper looks to suggest new directions for future AVI …